Third Rail Rep, Portland Playhouse on parallel paths

Owen CareyJohn Steinkamp and Audi in Third Rail's "The Lying Kind"A year ago, a fledgling theater company appeared on the local scene, calling itself Portland Playhouse and aiming to take over the niche of presenting high-level stage work in North/Northeast Portland, a slot in the cultural ecosystem opened by Third Rail Repertory Theatre's move downtown.

To which a cynic might have said: So you want to be the new Third Rail, eh, kid? Good luck on that.

Third Rail, after all, was the scene's biggest success story in years. A collective of actors and designers led (more or less) by artistic director Slayden Scott Yarbrough, it hit the ground running in early 2005 with fully professional productions using Equity union actors with local roots and years of experience. It earned nonstop critical raves and by last fall had outgrown the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center and found a new home at the larger World Trade Center Theater.

By contrast, Portland Playhouse was a family affair launched mere months after they'd moved here by artistic director Brian Weaver; his actress wife, Nikki; and his business-minded younger brother, Michael.

And yet, only a year and a few productions later, it feels like a torch is being passed. By now firmly established as one of the city's finest companies, Third Rail no longer is the young darling, the up-and-comer to watch. But it's happy to help introduce you to Portland Playhouse.

Both companies open new shows this weekend. Third Rail gets its season off to a later-than-usual start tonightwith "The Lying Kind," a dark yet hysterically funny holiday farce by Anthony Neilson. On Saturday, Portland Playhouse opens "Bingo With the Indians," a vividly foul-mouthed drama by Adam Rapp.

Tim True, a founding member of Third Rail, makes his debut as a director with the Portland Playhouse production. Gretchen Corbett, another Third Rail stalwart, starred in Steven Dietz's "Fiction," which opened the Portland Playhouse season earlier this fall. And in February, Brian Weaver will act in Third Rail's production of David Mamet's "American Buffalo."

Talk to them about inspirations and aspirations, and both companies point to Woolly Mammoth Theatre of Washington, D.C., as the stable, midsized, artistically adventurous organization they want to emulate.

Suffice it to say, there's a little mutual admiration going on.

"They've certainly been our heroes and role models," says Weaver, who recalls that Third Rail's "Dead Funny" was his family's introduction to Portland theater last year.

"They just have such an open quality to them, people finding them really quickly," True says of the Weavers. "There's a certain kind of energy some people give off that makes you want to be around them and to help them."

"They're very clear in what they want," Yarbrough says. "They want to not just cater to a younger audience but straddle the line and appeal to more typical theatergoers as well." He points to the casual ambience of the Portland Playhouse space, a converted church where audiences can sip beer and munch popcorn during performances. "They're interested in taking away some of the elitist perceptions of theater and making it a communal experience."

Yarbrough also likes the Weavers' "willingness to think big -- even if it might end up being too big." Or as Brian Weaver puts it, "We admire Third Rail's motto of doing less and doing it really well. But we just can't say 'no.'"

Hence the risk of "Bingo With the Indians," which the company presented this summer in a late-night reading with Anthony Rapp, the playwright's brother who was in town starring in the touring production of "Rent." It concerns a group of struggling New York actors who visit a New England town with plans to rob the local bingo game to finance their theater work. But the language and sexual content are far from subtle. "We took a lot of heat when we chose the play," Weaver says. "A lot of people read it and think it's gratuitous. We know it has the potential to alienate people. But for me as an artist, it's about how hard it is to follow your passion."

For Third Rail, "The Lying Kind" is big, too, with the biggest cast and biggest stage the company has yet employed. With a plot that spins uproarious comedy from dark premise (a pair of timid policemen come to notify a family of a fatal accident), Yarbrough says it, too, is "very profane and politically incorrect -- yet within something that feels very traditional and familiar as a holiday play."

As Third Rail works that balancing act, no doubt Portland Playhouse will be coming close behind.